GENEVA, Feb 28 (Reuters) - German Foreign Minister Guido
Westerwelle said on Monday he was proposing a 60-day freeze on
all financial payments to Libya to prevent money from going to
embattled leader Muammar Gaddafi.

"We are therefore working to ensure that all financial flows
are cut off," Westerwelle told reporters after a meeting with
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "The new consideration
is to freeze all payments to Libya for the next 60 days."

Westerwelle said he was speaking only for Germany, but that
he believed other countries were open to the idea.

"We must do everything to ensure that no money is going
into the hands of the Libyan dictator's family, and that they
have no opportunity to hire new foreign soldiers to repress
their people," he said.

Asked if the German proposal would cover European oil
payments to Libya, he indicated it did.

"We suggest that those bills are frozen, that those payments
are frozen," he said, adding that it did not amount to
permanently reneging on payment.

Westerwelle, Clinton and other world foreign ministers are
in Geneva for a meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council which
is expected to focus on the crisis in Libya, where Gaddafi is
violently suppressing a spreading revolt against his rule.

The United States, Britain and the U.N. Security Council
have already imposed sanctions on Gaddafi and his close
associates, and Clinton said the next steps should be aimed at
creating further economic pain and diplomatic isolation for the
long-time North African ruler.
(Reporting by Andrew Quinn; Editing by Louise Ireland)